โDaphne pulled back slightly so that she could look at Elliotโs face again. He smiled at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ the same way Colinโs did.โ
โI love you with my past, and I love you for my future." He bent forward and kissed her, once, softly, on the lips.
"I love you for every one of my smiles, and even more, for every one of ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด.โ
โLook at this, look at this," Colin said impatiently, pointing to his name on the front cover.
Penelope beamed. "Look at that. And so elegant, too." She ran her finger over the words as she read, "๐๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง, by Colin Bridgerton.โ
โI don't want to destroy your dreams,โ Penelope said.
โThey were ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ my dreams until I met you ... a dream you gave me,โ he whispered.
โThat ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต mean I can take it away.โ
โCome sit with me.โ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ? Penelope almost demanded.
Because the only flat surface was his ๐ญ๐ข๐ฑ.
His smile, which had been charm personified, grew more heated. โIโm missing you right now,โ he murmured.
โGood heavens," she moaned. If sin could take a solid form, surely it would be a pastry. Preferably one with chocolate.
"๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ๐ฉ?"
Penelope choked on the eclair, then coughed, sending a fine spray of pastry cream through the air.
"Colin," she gasped.
Colin and Penelope were just about to part ways when they heard a loud female voice bark out, "Mr. Bridgerton!"
They both froze. It was a voice they both knew. It was a voice everyone knew.
"๐๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ," Colin groaned.
She was amazing. He didn't know how he hadn't realized it before when he already knew that she was smart, lovely, witty, and resourceful.
But all those adjectives didn't add up to the true measure of her.
She was amazing.
And he was... Dear God, he was ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด of her.
His love hadn't been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance.
Every second he had spent in Penelope's presence it had grown, until he'd reached this moment, and he suddenly knew.
๐๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ.
Penelope would always remember that her first, and most probably only, kiss had occurred on a Friday.
She'd met Colin on a Monday.
She'd kissed him on a Friday.
๐๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.
He whispered, "You're beautiful."
"No," she said, the word barely more than a breath. "Don't say things you don't mean."
"You're beautiful," he repeated. "I don't know how... I don't know when..."
He touched her lips, feeling her hot breath on his fingertips. "But you ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ."